What should carriers be asking for, in terms of BSS and OSS, in order to maintain network integrity as
demand for data-rich services and real-time transactions explodes?
The billing/order entry teams can set up the customer info and process the order quite well. The
operations teams can monitor the technology adequately. The challenge has been, and will continue
to be, tying the two worlds together. Operations speaks in terms of device names, ip addresses, and
interfaces. The BSS guys speak in terms of customer name. The challenge is creating an automated bridge between these two worlds. People have been trying to do this for ages and it is still one of the
biggest challenges facing CSPs.
Jeff Yoshimura, VP, Zuora
Can cloud-based billing systems compete with the products offered by entrenched traditional BSS
vendors, and is cloud-based billing gaining traction in the Service Provider space?
The time has come for billing in the cloud. We believe the market has changed so dramatically in
the industry that service providers need cloud-based billing systems to effectively compete. The
emergence of smart phones, devices and tablets carrying voice, data, Internet and video is transforming
the communications industry. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, by 2015, there will
be 7.2 billion mobile devices and more than 2/3 of network traffic will be consumed by video. Since
the launch of the iPhone and iPad, more than 10 billion apps have been downloaded, according to
Apple. These Internet and technology advancements are giving rise to a plethora of new providers and
subscriber services.
To survive in this innovative environment, service providers must be able to launch new products
and services rapidly, have the flexibility to change pricing, packaging and promotions in real-time,
and manage their customer relationships online. Unfortunately, service providers have been burdened
by inflexible, slow to implement, and costly legacy, on-premise billing systems that were built for
traditional telco billing, not for billing and servicing customers in the cloud.
To address these dramatic and indefinite changes by embracing the cloud, service providers can get to
market quickly to deliver new services to consumers, have the flexibility to iterate and experiment with
pricing and packaging often, and provide customers with an online self-service experience to purchase
services and manage their plans online.
Further, our belief is that big companies and small companies aren’t interested in buying traditional
telco billing platforms. Finally, we don’t expect anyone to unplug a traditional BSS system. Companies
have invested far too much to simply rip and replace. The better strategy that we work with customers
on is seamless co-existence today and measured migration over time.
What should carriers be asking for, in terms of billing systems, in order to maintain network integrity
as demand for data-rich services and real-time transactions explodes?
To ensure network integrity, billing platforms need to be open. They need to be able to share and
accept data from the network. They need to be able to meter and bill from the network. They need to be
able to communicate and authenticate with a range of network devices. Cloud- based billing systems
deliver the greatest level of flexibility to achieve this.
